EMBL presentations about the TREC programme and sampling around Iceland

Visitors from European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg at the University of Iceland that will give presentations in Fróði auditorium, Sturlugata 8 on August 9th from 10:00. EMBL is Europe’s flagship laboratory for the life sciences – an intergovernmental organisation with more than 80 independent research groups covering the spectrum of molecular biology.  

Peer Bork is the Director of EMBL and will give a talk at 10:00 titled "Planetary Biology@EMBL: The TREC expedition and global microbiomics". More info about Bork's group available here.  

Rainer Pepperkok is the Director of Scientific Core Facalities and Scientific Services at EMBL Heidelberg and will give a talk at 10:30 titled "Mobile services & andvanced imaging at the beach". More info about Pepperkok's group available here.  

After their talks we have room for 1 hour of discussion.  

As describen in a recent news at the university homepage a team of scientists from a large number of different institutions that study Icelandic ecology are now involved in an extensive collaboration with EMBL aiming to shed new light on how organisms, from the smallest to the largest, respond to each other and to environmental changes. A pilot project planned for this summer will focus on coastal ecosystems in Iceland.

The project is called TREC and is part of the EMBL's programme for the next five-year cycle, "Molecules to Ecosystems".  The research theme is planetary biology and the aim is to harness the latest technology and methods in molecular biology to learn more about the status of individual ecosystems and the health of our planet.

On the coming Sunday (7.8.22) the first of the EMBL scientists will arrive and set up a laboratory at the Marine and Freshwater Research Institute (MFRI). This will involve scientists from not only EMBL, but also from other Universities around Europe. Sampling will be around Reykjavík, Hafnarfjörður and Lake Thingvallavatn. Water, soil, sediments, and also small marine annelids and planarians will be sampled. This is in collaboration with the MFRI, but also the Southwest Iceland Nature Research Centre, the University of Iceland ́s Research Centre in Suðurnes and Icelandic Museum of Natural History. 

After 10 days at the MFRI some of the groups will move on to the Westfjords to stay and sample in Bolungarvík in collaboration with The University of Iceland's Research Centre in theWestfjords.

Finally, one group will continue onwards to Akureyri and sample in Öxarfjörður and at Lake Mývatnin collaboration with the University of Akureyri, the Icelandic Institute of Natural History and the Mývatn Research Station.

During this time several of the group leaders and the director general of EMBL will visit Iceland. 

EMBL was instrumental in the development of BIODICE. We are eager to build on this relationship, and facilitate short- and long-term research collaborations between BIODICEand EMBL. 

If you are interested in hearing more about the pilot or connecting to the different groups please either contact Valerie Maier (valerie@hi.is), who has been coordinating this for the Icelandic side or just show up at the above events and learn more about what is happening.